"Primordial spirits have been stirring … " "A provocative omen on the eve of catastrophe … " It will "roam the earth terrifying and enlightening those who dare to ride … along the razor's edge between hope and fear … " TITANOBOA! Okay, so the copy promoting Titanoboa sounds like it came from a bad monster movie. But if you had a GIGANTIC ROBOTIC SNAKE that could "battle" (i.e. slither around the same warehouse space as) a GIGANTIC ROBOTIC SPIDER, you might get a little dramatic, too. On a more serious note, the geniuses behind Titanoboa took inspiration from the …

A "techno party" in Switzerland may have killed a dolphin at a nearby aquarium. The dolphin declined and died suddenly over the course of a couple of hours, and animal protection groups are concerned that loud music from the 16-hour party, which was less than 60 yards from the facility, stressed the animal to death. Or possibly it just really, REALLY wasn't into techno. The local veterinary authority is saying that the music wasn't loud enough to kill anything: [T]he Veterinary Office from canton Thurgau saw no reason to ban the party, arguing that the facility where it would take …

Iceland sits just below the Arctic circle, at the confluence of multiple ocean currents, which means it a) has the Northern Lights and b) gets tons of rain so is covered with waterfalls. No doubt the descendants of Norsemen chant heartily whenever they behold this rare confluence of events:

Texas' wildfire "season" has lasted for more than a year and won't end anytime soon. Obama: "Over the long term, [reducing carbon emissions] is good for our economies." By 2020, investors could be pouring $395 billion a year, double the current total, into clean energy. Only about half of the Department of Energy's spending for running its 16 laboratories goes to actual research. The rest goes to overhead and capital spending. Finally, the department is realizing that this means it should have fewer labs. PETA's going after Thanksgiving turkey AND Super Mario Brothers. If they start picking on sports teams …

There are two important principles of veganism that most people don't understand. More food is vegan than is immediately obvious. But more seemingly innocuous products have animals parts in them than the average meat-eater imagines. Case in point: tattoos. As Tim Donnelly writes at The Atlantic, "The ink and processes at your average shop contain a veritable buffet of animal detritus: charred bones of dead animals in the ink, fat from once-living things in the glycerin that serves as a carrying agent, enzymes taken from caged sheep that go into making the care products." And you're putting that in your …

Now that we know birds are basically just tiny dinosaurs, it makes them simultaneously more cool and more terrifying. On the one hand: tiny dinosaur that lives in your house and asks you for a cracker! On the other hand: tiny dinosaur that tries to get all up in your boardwalk fries! And here we have a giant band of tiny dinosaurs doing an incredibly elaborate, exquisite undulating choreography on the air. Little lizards, you are pretty incredible.

As president, Rick Perry would eliminate the Department of Energy, if he could remember he wanted to eliminate the Department of Energy. Do countries have to officially declare a trade war? How will we know when the U.S./China trade war over solar power actually starts? Canada continues to prove that it’s just masquerading as a nice pleasant country. Now it's slashing its environment budget. It all seems kind of sinister, right? Climate change would benefit the country's farmers; Canada does have trees to spare; maybe it's enjoying all the attention? Hmmmm. Australia, meanwhile, is preparing to host refugees from Pacific …

This photo, by Green Renaissance for the World Wildlife Fund, shows a sedated black rhino being airlifted across South Africa. The WWF's Black Rhino Range Expansion Project aims to move the rhinos into safer habitats, which may mean transporting the beasts more than 900 miles.

Grab Granny's fur coat (take Granny out first) and bring it to your local Buffalo Exchange, if you're lucky enough to have one nearby. From Nov. 25 through April 22, their Coats for Cubs program will take your furs (including trims, accessories, and shearling) and use them to "provide bedding and comfort to orphaned and injured wildlife." In other words, FUR BEDS FOR SAD FOREST CREATURES. Seriously, if you have an heirloom fur muff or something lying around, it will NEVER EVER EVER DO ANYTHING THIS CUTE if you just keep it in mothballs. It'll just sit around smelling like camphor …

If you've read the bestseller Freedom, you won't be surprised to hear that novelist Jonathan Franzen describes himself as "a long-time green." One of the book's main characters, Walter Berglund, is "greener than Greenpeace," Franzen tells us on the first page. Walter throws himself into campaigns to fight population growth and save birds, ultimately leading him to make a Faustian bargain involving mountaintop-removal coal mining and natural-gas drilling West Virginia. Franzen's own environmentalism is less obsessive, but, as he told Grist fans at a recent event in New York City, he's still passionate about the issues. Watch highlights from Franzen's …